James K. Polk

Presidency

What Polk nominee did not receive confirmation by the Senate?

Polk nominated George Washington Woodward, a Pennsylvania state judge as associate justice in 1845. However, the Senate refused to confirm Woodward. Polk speculated in his diary that James Buchanan, his secretary of state who also was from Pennsylvania, had worked against the nomination. Buchanan had requested that Polk nominate John M. Read, another Pennsylvanian, to the Supreme Court.